Stop Interfering. Let Talent Shine

Release control: if you hire a bird, let it fly.

How Control Kills Initiative

Do you ever get that slap-in-the-face feeling, the sinking realisation that you ignored your own advice?

The book I’m writing includes a section dedicated precisely to the harm of micro-managing your team, and I recommend that a leader should set clear expectations and let their approach delight you. So it was a rather nasty feeling when I had to acknowledge that I was doing exactly what I advocate to avoid.

This served as a timely reminder that bad habits creep in under the guise of best intentions. No one micromanages others because they enjoy it, it stems from the fear of a lack of control, usually triggered by some external pressure. In my case it was a looming deadline. 

The Tunnel of Narrow Vision

I needed help with a specific image for my brand, so I did what many of us do these days: I tinkered with an AI agent. I spent an hour prompting, tweaking, and adjusting, but I still wasn't happy with the result. I decided to bring in a professional. I asked a trusted friend in the industry to introduce me to a graphic designer he rated highly.

The initial call went well, but after explaining the concept I was trying to represent, I made the mistake of showing her what I had come up with - even though I didn’t love it. I also told her I needed it very quickly. After a couple of days she returned four or five variations on my theme, much better quality than mine, but they didn’t impress me much.

I wondered why she showed limited imagination, when my friend had put her forward because she’s so creative. The answer came to me like a sharp smack. I was the problem, not her. Showing her my poor design had shackled her, and put her in a tunnel of my vision. Instead of asking for her to design from her talent, I was asking her to correct my mistakes.

I called her again, told her to forget my image, and instead just focus on the concept. The next day she sent me two versions that I loved. Each pursued a different angle, held deeper meaning, and both were beautiful beyond my expectations. I was hard pressed to choose a favourite.

I had just lived a lesson from my own book. The instant I took her out of my narrow tunnel and explained the broad outline of what I wanted rather than the fine detail, her talent was free to soar and brought my idea to visual life in a way that I simply could not.

“Control is an illusion that costs you both time and talent.”

Relinquish the Illusion of Control

The main issues here were trust (or the lack thereof), and intent. In my first attempt, I was mostly driven by my more apparent goal: the deadline. My intention in assigning the task, therefore was skewed towards having the result back to me ASAP.

I succeeded in that priority, but when I saw the result, I realised that my true intent was not in fact speed, but creativity and aesthetics. It was only when I approached the assignment of the task a second time with this priority in mind that I could relinquish the illusion of control and create the conditions for my objective to be met.

My first attempt squandered both our time and cost me more money.

Three Lessons in Effective Delegation

Here’s what I learnt from this experience:

• Centre your intent. Before assigning or delegating a task, pause for a minute and ask yourself “What do I actually want from this?” It’s easy to reply that we want it correct and fast and cheap. Run through those scenarios in your mind. If you get it quickly but it’s incorrect, will you reject it? If yes, then speed is not truly your intent. Ask yourself again.

• Trust your talent. I didn’t know this designer, so I didn’t trust her. Yet, she was referred by someone I trust implicitly for his marketing experience. Since I asked him for a referral, I should have trusted her immediately. At worst, she’d have got it wrong, which happened the first time anyway.

• Control kills initiative. When assigning the task, describe what a good result would look like, but let the person free to do it their way. Set the broad parameters: I wouldn’t have been OK with her taking 20 hours for a single design, nor coming back with something that had no bearing on my concept.

A Final Waypoint

This experience stung because I have literally just written a chapter on this very topic. It is a reminder that leadership is not a destination you reach, but a discipline you practice every day. I didn't waste our time intentionally, but that was the result of hurrying into action without checking my own blind spots.

Mirror Check

Who have you placed in your tunnel of excessive control and detail? Can you re-frame the task request and allow them to do what they do free of your interference?

Thank you for reading this far. If any of this resonates, I’d love to welcome you as a reader and to stay connected. Please join the mailing list for future posts, share your thoughts in the comments, or find me on LinkedIn.